Sword Art Online: Seeking Legends
by Mantisunshine
Summary: A new Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), called Sword Art Online, has been released worldwide. The game, however, has a major glitch in the game that traps every player in the game. The players have to go through the 100 Floors to defeat the glitch. New faces to be seen in the game, and a new adventure for players. Who will become legends?
1. A Virtual Realm

In the mid summer afternoon, a teenager came out of the local market with groceries to bring back home. The boy is somewhat below average in size for people his age with olive black hair, clothed with a dark long-sleeved shirt, loose blue jeans, and a black, bulky coat. The bags contained a half gallon of milk and tea with bread in a separate bag. The boy walks towards his bike that he had left at a bike parking rack near the market and stormed off. He is biking fast with the two plastic bags hanging on his shoulders. The bread bag was teetering back and forth while the milk and tea bag remained dormant.

As the boy avoids the townspeople against his direction, he comes across a giant billboard, embellished with a blue background, and a silhouette of a teenager holding up what appears to be a sword, with gradated light shining behind it. The text on the billboard was labeled "Sword Art Online Official Server Open Now!" The boy makes an immediate, yet gradual stop, to read the rest of the details presented on the precious advertisement with full enthusiasm. He notices the familiar dark navy blue helmet-like device on the billboard, which was labeled "NerveGear." The device also had translucent, teal lenses for the users to look through as the device is being worn. Also, there was text next to the NerveGear picture that jumped into the viewers arms that said "Full Dive System!" and "Explore the New World!" These messages imply that the functions of the NerveGear that is required to explore that new world within a video game.

After admiring the astounding news from the dazzling advertisement, the boy rushes home in excitement for the revisiting of the beautiful virtual world since he had explored a Beta version of the same world. Approximately ten minutes later, the boy arrives home, leans his bike against the left side of his house near the porch, and rushes inside through the front door. The boy sets his groceries down on the table and shouted "I'm home," informing his family that he had returned from the market, all while racing to his room.

When he had finally arrived in his room, he shuts the door behind him and began to search for his previously used NerveGear. The boy had found it seconds after shutting the door, and has checked the condition of the device. The NerveGear only had a thin blanket of dust on the top of it, so the boy dusted it off with his shirt, preparing to use it once again.

He targeted his bed and decided to lie over the blankets, thinking of nothing but starting the NerveGear up. He puts on the NerveGear gently upon his head after sitting up for a moment, and lies back down. The device began to do its magic by scanning the boy's brain and body, using invisible rays that detect the sensory receptors of the body, and obtains the information about the user to create an avatar that resembles the player. After minutes of scanning and telling the boy to wait, the NerveGear displays a message screen within the translucent lenses for the user to direct the system to the server the user desired. The boy had chosen the new Sword Art Online server, titled "SAO," that is ready to be explored. The NerveGear focuses on that server and waits for the boy to give the proper command to the NerveGear to connect to the targeted server, which it instructed the user with a message presented on the left side of the lenses. Since the boy already knew how to give the proper command, he gave the command the second after the NerveGear was ready for him.

"Link Start!" the boy shouted, commanding the NerveGear to connect to the server, and then taking control of his brain for the Full Dive System to work properly. The boy's mind is travelling though many visible portals with many colors and kaleidoscopes opening up different pathways until it reaches a shining white light at the end. After approaching the light, the light slowly fades to black. The boy began to gain his senses again, and has realized that he is closing his eyes after his mind approached the light.

The boy wakes up lying on the ground with the vast blue sky in his sight. He ganders at the familiar territory that his virtually calibrated body has set foot on once before, and puts on a satisfied smile on his face. After getting up from the ground, he has noticed the familiar indicators that stalk him throughout the game in a fixed position within the player's point of view. The indicators are a rectangular screen at the top left corner of the player's vision that displays their username and level, and the Hit Point bar at the right of the player's vision that is curved forty degrees around the player's head, and is entirely green in color, showing that they have a high amount of their maximum HP. The boy's username was labeled as "Kirito," and the level value is one. Kirito then looks at his virtual body, and has noticed a change in clothing. He is wearing the default armor that the server provides for beginning players, which is a leather chest plate, leather gauntlets, a belt, leather boots, and a long-sleeved shirt and pants of a custom color the player chooses. For Kirito, his shirt is blue and his pants are black. He is also equipped with a sword called the Beginner's Blade, which is a sword that can only pierce enemy monsters.

After analyzing his virtual avatar, Kirito began to walk and observe the scenery.

"It's good to back in Aincrad" Kirito said in enjoyment after letting out a big, satisfying sigh.

Kirito realized that the players start around a random location around the central tower of the area he is on, which is the called the Tower of Beginnings, due to his view of many other players laying on the ground after the connection process of the NerveGear the same process that has been done with him, but in various areas. Due to this situation, the Tower of beginnings has very few tame monsters that the players encounter. Kirito had also noticed that a big number of players are heading to the village around the central tower, so he began to walk there as well, watching for incoming players and monsters.

Unfortunately, he has noticed an inexperienced player being attacked by a monster, known as the Frenzy Boar, and came to his rescue. Kirito was distant from the beast, so he spotted a rock on the ground that is lying at his feet, picked it up, and threw it at the monster with all of his might. The rock is travelling in high speeds, and then hits the monster's left cheek before it prepared for another attack, causing severe damage with the swollen cheek to prove it. The monster's lost sight of its current target due to the incredible force the rock has given to the monster, and immediately forgets about the current target and looks straight at the source of where the rock was thrown. The livid monster exhales loudly, and charges straight at Kirito in full speed. As soon as the monster lowered its head, ready to ram its target that is only steps away, Kirito successfully and nonchalantly sidestepped to the left away from the monster, dodging its ferocious attack, and pivots his right foot to face the monster and slices the monster in half perfectly. The monster was severed with no graphic display, and blew away in many pieces, giving Kirito and the boy experience points and gold that it has dropped.

After witnessing the noble hero's soigné attack, the troubled player thanks him. Though Kirito is a slightly xenophobic individual, he looks at the rescued player and politely acknowledged his appreciation. The rescued player was younger and shorter than Kirito is. He has purple, straight hair and purple eyes, and his build was average for a kid his age. He wears the default armor and has a red shirt and blue pants. He looked at Kirito excitedly and introduced himself.

"My name is Reginald" he introduced himself in slight desperation to be acquainted with his rescuer. Kirito emits a moderate sigh of annoyance and introduces himself as well.

"I'm Kirito" he said calmly, noticing the inspired and interested look on Reginald's face, like if he wanted to be like the noble warrior standing before him.

"I want to be like you one day!" Reginald shouted in excitement and determination, and Kirito smiled at him.

Kirito admonishes Reginald about sword wielding skills as well as defensive tactics. Reginald has taken full consideration towards the instructions Kirito had provided him.

Kirito had realized that he had spent a lot of time than he expected helping a beginner, so he quickly said goodbye to Reginald and ran to the central tower. Reginald waved goodbye to Kirito with a big smile on his face, and thanked him for all he had done. Reginald runs off in search of more enemies to practice the strategies that he had learned from Kirito.

Players near and far from Kirito are all communicating with each other as they battle and head to the village as well as assisting each other in battle. He had noticed that there are also lone wolves fighting enemies and observing the world that they have been set upon. As he analyzes all the actions of every player in sight, Kirito tries his best to avoid contact with them.

After a while of running, Kirito has reached his destination and began to walk. The village was fairly big, with many players registering for spots to start a business with vending, blacksmithing, cooking, and much more. Kirito wasn't too hyped with starting a business and wasn't fathomed with players starting businesses in the first place. Even though earning money in the game is as crucial as it is in the real world, Kirito planned on earning his money by defeating enemies as well as selling the treasure he finds, just like in any other role playing game. Businesses in Sword Art Online are generally not Kirito's way of making money, along with many other players.

With many stores and residential homes, an inn has been included near the central tower, and right next to a neutral settlement that is currently being registered by an enthusiastic player. A player with a fantastic build and dark colored skin, and has a green shirt and tan pants with the default armor. Kirito rushes to the inn, passing the man in the process.

Kirito's excitement rises as he notices the host politely welcomes him with a graceful smile. Kirito immediately requested for a room to stay in, so the host booked a room for him, and offers 200 gold. Since every player starts with 2000 gold, Kirito has enough money and accepts her offer, and heads to the room as soon as he received the key from the host. Although the host was only computer generated, she brings a smile to many customers. Kirito enters his room, which has only a single bed provided for him. It may seem inadequate to people in the real world, but it is lovely to the players in the server.

Kirito approaches his bed and set all of his equipment beside it. After getting fully situated for resting, he lies on the bed, puts his blanket over him, and leaving only his head visible. Seconds after that, he had reached in front of him and tapped the air, as if there were an invisible button in front of him, and accessed his personal menu. The menu was launched with a vertically lined sequence of five circles. The circle with the gear icon on it is the "Configurations" option. This option was located on the very bottom of the line of circles. Kirito taps the Configurations option and then more choices slide from the right side of that circle until they are all visible to the player. One choice was to log out of the server, and Kirito tapped that option to go back to the real world.

The setting flashes brightly and the portals and kaleidoscopes from before reappear, except in an inverted direction, giving Kirito the illusion that he is going backwards, away from the virtual world. Around ten seconds later, the portals disappear, and leave only a black void for his mind to see. Kirito has regained the senses in his real body and wakes up looking at the ceiling of his bedroom through the translucent lenses on the NerveGear.

Kirito slowly sits up, takes off his NerveGear, and looks to his right out the window. He had realized it was already night, and looks to his left at his clock displayed on the wall. The clock tells Kirito it is 10:34 PM. Kirito felt exhausted, yet satisfied, and dosed off after putting his blanket over him, looking forward to his second adventure in the wonderful virtual realm.


	2. A Major Mishap (Part 1)

**Meanwhile in Argus Cooperation**

* * *

****A developer of Sword Art Online is looking at the ratings of the game from it's first day being released. She felt accomplished with the high numbers of players starting businesses, and the high amount of players in general. A man approached her work station. This man is no ordinary man, he is the development director as well as the creator of Sword Art Online, Akihiko Kayaba. Akihiko says hello to her and observes the statistics over her shoulder. He was also astonished with the results. He puts his hand on her shoulder and praises her.

"Great Job Shura! Your business system for the players was a huge success!" Akihiko said to congratulate her.

A coworker next to Shura also congratulated her, but felt slightly jealous. This man is Kaneda Matsumoto, a developer who created the personal menu for the players, and is the designer and programmer of the weapons used in Sword Art Online. Shura was happy to have thoughtful coworkers that praise and support her.

"Keep up the good work." Akihiko said to the developers and then left her work station, returning to his office.

The developers have returned to their duties after all of the hype about the ratings. The developers are keeping the game in check and are updating the game for more enhanced game play.

* * *

**Going back to Kirito's perspective**

* * *

The bright sun pokes through the window, illuminating the room with it's natural light. Kirito wakes up and observes the beauty of this summer morning, partially cloudy with the sun's exposure dominating the sky. Kirito was happy that it was summer since his vacation gave him more time to spend in Aincrad. Before he thought of starting, he thought of nourishing himself since he planned to spend all day in Aincrad.

He went out of bed and went into the kitchen to prepare a meal for himself. He looks in his cupboards for something simple and satisfying to eat, and he ends up finding his favorite cereal, "Berriers", which consist of round berry flakes of various flavors trapped by a crispy rice shell from all around. With a happy look on his face, Kirito picks up the box of cereal from the cupboard and sets it on the table, then gets a bowl from another cupboard and milk from the refrigerator.

He finally pours his milk and cereal into the bowl, then puts the milk back in the fridge. He grabs a spoon and sinks it into the cereal bowl and scoops up a spoonful and takes a bite. That bite made him rather happy since he had been craving for the cereal for a while. As he was eating, he observes and analyzes the cereal box in front of him. He notices in the box art how some berry flakes aren't fully covered with the crispy rice shell to demonstrate the different berry flavors for each shell.

He finishes his breakfast, puts everything he got out away, and returns to his room. He lays back in bed and retrieves his NerveGear from the side of his bed. He slaps and snaps the NerveGear upon his head and commands the system to link into the SAO server like before.

* * *

He once again loses his physical senses as his body is being calibrated into the virtual world. He regains his senses after fully connecting into the server, but this time he feels a blanket over top of him along with a mattress and pillow from beneath. He opens his eyes and ganders at the ceiling, remembering logging out at the very spot he is in at the moment. He smiled in excitement, and began to suit up for adventure.

As soon as he gets ready, Kirito barges out of the inn and stops at the front door, admiring the village o he sets foot in. He looks to his right and began to walk in that direction towards a long road that is fenced by buildings. As Kirito takes his first couple steps, a merchant hollers at him by shouting "Hey you!", wanting Kirito to buy something at his stand.

Kirito approaches the stand and notices sets of potions, armor, and weapons laid across the stand in an orderly manner. The merchant was the same merchant that Kirito had passed by the previous day.

"The name is Agil. I will be at your service today." The merchant introduced himself, extending his arm with his hand spread open in front of Kirito, expecting a handshake from him. Kirito looks at Agil's well developed and scruffy-bearded face and introduced himself.\

"I'm Kirito." he said briefly to Agil as he shook hands with him politely.

"Now then", Agil said to get back in business, directing Kirito's attention to all the products on the stand while encouraging him to buy something.

Kirito examines the swords displayed and decided to pick one up. He takes a look at the sword's statistics by tapping it, displaying a menu of the sword's information. He then lashes the sword around to test it's weight, then sets it back down.

Agil patiently watched Kirito test all the different swords on the stand, but marginally crestfallen to see Kirito's disappointed look towards the swords.

"These swords are junk." Kirito said rudely.

Agil was upset to hear such words from a customer, but he maintained his cool so he doesn't scare away the customer.

Agil directed his attention towards the armor and potions. Kirito looked at the iron chest plate and looked at the information. Kirito liked the results and was happy that they have the armor plate on the stand. Kirito decided to purchase the iron chest plate armor and three vials of red potions.

"One Iron Chest Plate armor and three potions" Agil said happily while calculating the price for the items Kirito wishes to purchase. Agil then stated the price of 1600 gold, expecting Kirito to have the gold to make the transaction. Kirito pulls out his pouch from his pocket and reaches for the coins inside. He manages to grab the correct amount of coins from the pouch that matches the price, and puts them in Agil's hand.

Agil happily gave Kirito the purchased items, thanked him for coming, and told him to have a nice day. Kirito nodded at him happily and was satisfied to buy the items from another player rather than a computer generated avatar.

Kirito accesses his personal menu and touches the circle on the top, which had a logo of a human's head and shoulders, known as the "Player Menu", which opens a submenu. After pressing the Equipment and Armor buttons, a menu of obtained armor that Kirito had received, so he pressed on the "Iron Chest Plate" button to finally equip his new armor. But, a confirmation menu pops up in front of Kirito, asking him whether he wants to equip the armor or not. The menu has a circle button on the bottom left corner representing yes, and an "X" button on the bottom right corner representing no. Kirito presses the yes button, and then the menu shrinks and disappears.

A shining light shrouds his current armor and the light began to change in shape. The light then faded and revealed the new armor Kirito purchased. Kirito looked down at his new armor and smiled in satisfaction.

Kirito then continued onward through the village trail he was heading towards earlier, planning on leaving the village and into the fields that surround the village.

* * *

**I know the story is slow right now, but be patient my readers, the exciting stuff is coming up.**


	3. A Major Mishap (Part 2)

**Previously, Akihiko Kayaba and Kaneda Matsumoto praised Shura Fujiyoshi for her work on the business system, Kirito eats a bowl of Berriers for breakfast in the real world and buys the Iron Chest Plate armor from the merchant, Agil, in Sword Art Online. Kirito then ran through the roads, heading to the fields.**

* * *

Kirito exits the village and enters the fields looking for monsters to destroy. As he looked, he had noticed another defenseless player attacked by a Frenzy Boar. The player had red, short, and spiky hair, and a red bandana with a few dandelion colored diagonal lines on his head, and a red shirt and white pants with the default armor for the rest of his body. He appears to be a grown man with a scrawny build, but slightly taller than common adults. Kirito threw his palm to his face in pity and ignored the situation. He turns away from the player and walks away.

"Dude! What the hell!?" the player yelled out of pure annoyance at Kirito before he could take a few steps.

Kirito looked back the player and sighed, then came to the rescue. Kirito approaches the boar and cuts off its right foreleg, preventing it from charging. The player gets up and thanks Kirito.

"It isn't dead yet" Kirito explained to the player, and informed him that he has to five the final blow.

Before Kirito allows the player to defeat the injured boar, he teaches the player sword skills and how to use them. Luckily for Kirito, another boar appears next to the injured boar. The healthy boar lamented over the injured beast and became livid. The bold beast rushes at Kirito at a high speed. During that time, Kirito bends his legs and his free hand moves forward and the armed hand behind him and and concentrates his potential to his sword, causing it to glow a radiant sky blue color. The player was amazed to see such incredible visualization of what Kirito and Sword Art Online are capable of. Kirito glared at his target and leaps forward towards the target at light speed, stabbing through the target at ease. The healthy boar decays into many blue triangular pieces and disappears to the sky. The player was eager to try the attack, so he faces the injured boar and begins to position himself for the attack the way Kirito did. Seconds later, the player's sword began to glow, then he leaps at the enemy the same way Kirito did, and pierced the injured boar through the middle, finally defeating it. The player felt accomplished from defeating the boar, which had dropped some money. The player picked up the money as well as Kirito from the monsters they had defeated.

"God that was hard!" the player said in relief.

Kirito looked at the player in pity and laughed a little inside.

"Those boars are equivalent to slimes in common role playing games" Kirito explained to the player, indirectly stating that they are the weakest enemies in Sword Art Online.

"I thought those things were mid-level bosses or something." The player yelled in disbelief.

Kirito laughed quietly at the player, then he explained that Sword Art Online doesn't have a feature that allows the players to use magic.

"No magic?" The player said in another state of being shocked, and then began to think of the risky and uniqueness of the game for a little bit and admire it. After all the excitement, the player thanks Kirito for the advice and for the rescue from his unfaithful encounter with a monster. Kirito acknowledged the player and decided to take another direction to find more monsters. Before Kirito took a step, the player interrupted him, wanting to introduce himself to Kirito.

"The name is Klein" the player introduces himself proudly to Kirito with a smile on his face.

"Kirito. The name is Kirito" Kirito introduced himself directly to Klein with a straight face as he turned his head towards Klein.

Kirito and Klein parted ways to defeat monsters for experience points, money, and even treasure.

Moments later, Kirito encounters another boar and defeats it right away with a vertical slash from his glowing sword. The light surrounding his sword disappeared as well as the defeated monster. This defeat was different for Kirito. After the result screen, which appears after defeating a monster, showing the player how many experience points, amount of money, and the amount of items received from the monster, disappears, another screen pops up announcing that Kirito's level had increased. Kirito is now level 2.

Also, Kirito had noticed that the coins took a different appearance. Kirito picked up the coins from the vanquished boar and examined them by opening up their information screen. The currency had changed from gold to Col. Kirito didn't care much, and assumed the appearance of the coins was the only thing changed in terms of currency. After that, he had heard a familiar cry from afar.

"Kirito!" Klein yelled to get his attention.

Klein stops next to Kirito with a worried look on his face and asked him how to log out. Kirito thoroughly instructed him and expected him to find it after listening to the instructions. Klein has went to his Configurations menu like Kirito instructed him, and is still having trouble.

"Still can't find it" Klein said in confusion.

Kirito then accesses the same menu Klein has after opening his personal menu. and scanned the submenu to prove a point. Unfortuately, Kirito couldn't locate the logout button also. Kirito was confused, so he tried contacting the game developers by tapping the "Help" option in the current submenu, but there was no answer. Klein did the same thing, but there was no answer for him as well. Shortly after, the sky went from blue with white clouds from a dark red color with gray skies. The confusion continues as Klein and Kirito teleported from the fields to the tower in the center of the village they have went in previously. Kirito saw glittering shines of light appear around him, flashing constantly around him. The lights flashed at a faster pace as more began to come each second to the point where Kirito's sight is covered in light. As soon as that happens, the flashes die down, then expose the village tower, where his virtual body had reappeared after disappearing from the fields. Not only Kirito and Klein were teleported to this area, but all of the players in the server as well. Every player looked confused and asked each other what was going on, except Kirito, and have replied with the same "I don't know", proving that they are just as confused as those who asked.

"Look!" A player shouts while looking at a large, ominous gray cloud merging to the center of the tower. As soon as the cloud is centered, lightning strikes at the tower, surprising every player with many of them screaming and with all players' hearts racing. As the lightning continued, each flash revealed a silhouette of a person with a large robe. The players became more frightened and began to scream some more. A huge lightning bolt strikes the tower, creating a powerful flash and an ear-numbing crash sound that had mentally shocked every player. Real or not, the human's sense of fear is still present. Their calibrated bodies aren't designed to take physical pain within Sword Art Online, but the pain inside one's mind continues to torment these players, making the game seem more dangerous than enjoyable.

After the flash, a human in a large hooded robe appears at the top of the tower, hiding their face over the hood. The robe completely covered their body except their hands and boots. The hooded jacket was designed with a blue outlined circle on the back, two blue lines spiraling around both arms, ending up at that circle, representing tornadoes, and a blue lightning design that starts from the circle to the top of the hood. Roaring red flames occupy the bottom of the robe. Within the void that the hood gives off, a tinted yellow light shines, representing the person's right eye.

"I am...everything" the hooded man said in a deep, ominous voice while the virtual body was twitching electrically as if the body was a hologram with low signal.

"A glitch?" Kirito asked himself to figure out what is going on.

"Where the hell is the log out button!?" Klein shouted at the mysterious hooded man, assuming that he was involved with the disappearance of the log out button.

"It was no mistake" the hooded man explained before his body acted up again, going through static pauses that distort his body and causing it to turn blue for very short periods of time. The shining light grew smaller for a moment as he yelled "You are trapped here! There is no escape!"

Players had turned berserk again with more blood-curdling screams due to hearing the horrible news. Kirito looks around nervously and notices a few players collapsing to the ground. Fear began to hoist like an anchor on a hefty ship as a few hundred more players fall to the ground.

"How unfortunate" the hooded man slowly said to the players. Many players look at the man angrily, snarling like wolves while others were on their knees sobbing over the fallen players and facing the monstrous anxiety that feeds off their sense of logic.

"Those fallen players are now dead. Their peers from the outside have forced the NerveGears off of them, which sends intense microwave from all the artificial receptors within the helmet, damaging a player's brain and killing them immediately. Also, if your avatar dies within the game, the same fate will happen to you in the real world" the hooded man explained nonchalantly.

The players continued to panic as more fear is being injected into their minds. While the citizens are in pain and the villain stands amused, one bold player calms down, stands his ground, and looks angrily at the hooded menace.

"Hey!" the man screamed to the villain with his deep and powerful voice. The other players began to quiet down. and the glitching villain turns to him with his shining eye glaring at him.

"We are the sheep being controlled by a rotten shepard. You use your shears to extract our wool to make us shiver! We will keep our wool from the clutches of you, our shepard!" the man continued, standing up to the villain.

The players began to calm down and a few others had something to say to the villain.

"We will not surrender nor die here in this world!" a teenage woman shouted.

"We shall not be violated by those like you!" Agil shouted

"Bastard! We are gonna punt your ass out of the server!" Klein shouted.

After those speeches, everyone's fear had converted into anger; it made everyone feel recovered enough to stand up to the villain and shout threats to him. The villain was silent for a moment while taking all of these threats like a man being continually shot by a machine gun.

"If you all want to kick my ass so badly, then meet me at the 100th floor" the hooded man calmly said to interrupt the players, then vanished from digital body distortion and blue flashes on the body, with one final bright flash to make the closing scene.

The sky began to clear up, and the setting had returned to normal. The players are still livid and hyped from the situation, and discussed their methods of reaching the 100th floor to defeat the villain. Kirito remained silent and began to run out of town. Klein had noticed Kirito already running off, and decided to catch up. Klein hollers at Kirito to tell him to wait, and it had worked. Klein looked desperate for more help due to the whole "die here, die there" fiasco, hoping Kirito would fulfill his needs. Kirito looked at him in the eyes and said in a serious tone: "Group with others. If someone offers you to join a guild, join them." Kirito accesses his personal menu and chooses the fourth circle from the top, known as the "Maps and Quests" menu, to open his map. a map screen opens up along with a screen, where completed and current quests are listed, to the right of it. Kirito locates the next town he planned on heading to and closes the menu.

"What about you?" Klein asked Kirito.

"I stand alone" Kirito said in the same serious tone and heads to the next town. Klein had a minor shocked look on his face for a minute, then he smiled and walked away.

The sun sets and the winds draw near as Kirito continues to run in the trail that leads to the next town while defeating enemies along the way.

* * *

**Meanwhile in Argus Coorperation**

* * *

Akihiko was the only man in the building since his workers were dismissed. Akihiko looks into the SAO server by using a program he developed to view all of Aincrad floor by floor. While viewing the first floor, he had noticed an unusual change to the sky and noticed that all players were transported to one spot with a hooded man on the tower with them. Akihiko was shocked from the unexpected results and had opened a coding window on the computer to fix the problem. As he was typing, a shadow that took shape of a human began to cover him. The second he had noticed the presence of the person beside him, they bashed his head with a crowbar to knock him out cold. The person looks into the computer and was intrigued to see the viewing program. They moved Akihiko from his chair and began to look into the program longer to see if modifications could be made.


	4. An Arrow That Points Right

It has been a day since the warriors have been in Sword Art Online. The sun began to rise to create a new day, with a few dull clouds in the yellow gradated sky.

A few warriors are up early to be better warriors than many others. Those warriors are fighting monsters around the trail that sits between the central village and a smaller village that they need to be in. The village is said to have citizens that need assistance that could reward the noble warriors gifts for the better future.

The population of Frenzy Boar and Terror Wolves have slowly decreased, and the levels of virtual men began to rise.

* * *

A young man in a red shirt with intermediate armor and a basic sword and shield combo walks along the trail and examines the ambitious warriors battling the monsters. He stopped for a moment and looked to his right and had noticed a Terror Wolf at a horrendous state, unable to walk, but to crawl due to injuring it's leg. He also noticed a selfish teenager gleam at the helpless monster that is begging for mercy. As soon as the armed teen rushed at it, the man in red rushes towards that selfish swordsman. Before he knew it, the young man in red was right next to him, approaching him at a high speed, and clocked him in the face, causing him to fly a few feet in the direction where force was applied, with HP slightly decreasing. Lying on his back, he grew livid and confused due to the young man's actions, and decided to yell.

"What the hell man? That was an easy kill!", the teenager yelled to the young man

"Exactly" the young man retorted.

"This poor creature needs to be treated. Whether it is a monster programmed to oppose us or not, there could be hidden codes within these beasts" the young man explained to the teenager.

The teenager still looked angry and disappointed.

The young man examined the injury and simply pulled out a potion and helped the creature ingest it. The wolf felt well again and stood on all of it's feet. He snarled at the young man and prepared to attack.

Believing he was right, the teenager attempts draws his blade, but the young man extends his hand to block his path, indirectly ordering him to stand back. Immediately after, he pulls out a flab of Boar Meat and the monster tears it in half as it takes a bite. The monster grew calmer as the young man gave the rest of the meat to it, and the teenager was surprised. The wolf's eyes went from a demoniac red color to a righteous blue color, symbolizing the wolf becoming tame and obtaining a new master.

"These creatures are like turtles, there are soft and gentle creatures hidden within their shells" the young man said as he petted the wolf then walked away.

He noticed that the wolf followed him after taking several steps, and smiled at it.

"Would you like to accompany me?" He asked the wolf.

The wolf nodded his head with a serious, yet satisfied look on his face.

"Scout. I will call you Scout" he said to the wolf. The wolf barked back in a rather happy tone to show his satisfaction towards the name given to him. The two then proceeded walking to the town at the end of the trail.

The teenager had realized that the way the young man spoke as he stood there, watching him walk away, sounded familiar. "Wait! I know who you are!" The man shouted, but alas, it was too late for the sound to reach him.

* * *

The daylight finally gradates the sky from an orange to blue hue, and Kirito and a hundred others had made it to the next town. The town was small with a few houses and all the essential shops that the warriors need to progress through the dungeons and floors of Aincrad. Kirito had heard a man talking from the distance. As intrigued as he was, Kirito walks east towards the source.

However, the man wasn't conversing with another person, but was conducting a meeting for the purpose of announcing efficient ways to defeat the first floor boss. The conductor had an elegant face with blue hair sitting above it. The hair spiked on the back, pointing away from the owner, and two mediocre strands of hair flow down beside both sides of the owner's face. His shirt was blue, and was overlapped by the powerful bronze armor sold within the town. The man also had the most powerful sword sold in the town as well.

"My name is Diabel" the confident man announced proudly as if it was necessary for his audience.

Diabel explains his tactics on how to defeat the first floor boss. He suggested that the strongest warriors are in the front and the weakest in the back. As soon as the weakest warriors study the boss' attack pattern, then the warriors switch positions to have the weak gain experience as well. Also, as soon as the final boss is at it's last hit point bar, the positions of the warriors switch back from the way it was in the beginning of the battle due to change of attack pattern. He also explained the weapon it carries for each attack pattern: A battle axe for the first attack pattern, and a samurai sword for the second. Intermediate players will take care of the reinforcements.

One warrior in the crowd realized that Diabel was a beta tester in the first nonofficial release of Sword Art Online since he knew so much about the boss, and had jumped to the stage to make his stand against beta testers.

"Beta tester!" The warrior shouted to the crowd while pointing at Diabel, leaving them confused for a moment before he explained the negative things about beta testers.

The warrior had a great build, but is also short in height. His sienna hair spikes up like the end of a medieval flail, and has a scruffy goatee that shoots down to his chin. He takes over the meeting by changing the audience's focus from on the boss to beta testers.

"These mendacious bastards have information, regarding to Sword Art Online, and use it to take on the easier quests before the beginners, and they feed the beginners to the wolves by simply leaving them behind! I, Kibaou, will not allow such treachery!" the man yelled to the crowd, targeting them to feel sympathy while looking for beta testers within the crowd by observing their behavior.

Kirito swallowed guilt for leaving Klein behind, yet he kept it hidden from the angry commentator.

"Show yourselves, and give us all of your Col to make things even between us!" Kibaou demanded to the beta testers he couldn't find in the crowd, hoping that someone would step up and pay the price.

One warrior was about to stand up with a sorrowful look on his face, but then another warrior interrupted their actions by raising his hand and asked Kibaou a question.

"May I say something?" Agil asked while sitting with the audience.

"Fine!" Kibaou said with a frustrated attitude.

Agil comes forth to the stage and stands next to the Kibaou, and is easily towering over him and outmatching him in strength by appearance. Agil reaches his into his back pocket and pulls out a a small, brown handbook, and explains all the information the beta testers and brokers of the server, which was provided to everyone within the server, to everyone in the meeting

"These handbooks prove that all of us are capable of accomplishing the same common goals as the beta testers" Agil claimed to support his stance.

Agil then looked down at Kibaou and asked "why bother complaining about the actions of a beta tester when you could have done the actions yourself?"

Kibaou grew angrier due to the fact that he knew he lost the argument, so he quickly and ungracefully turned his head away from Agil and sat back down with the rest of the audience. After that, Diabel was back in control after giving thanks to Agil. After Agil acknowledged Diabel, Diabel orders the warriors to group up for the boss battle.

Each section of the audience had a group of people that already knew each other, so a big percentage of the audience already formed groups the second Diabel ordered them to group up. Kirito, however, is part of the small percentage of the grouping ratio. He looked to his left and had noticed everyone that side was corroborated with one another. He then looked to his right and had found a hooded warrior that looked lonely. He shrugged at the fact that he needed to team up with warriors to defeat the first boss safely and strategically, and approached the hooded warrior slowly. Kirito was nervous and said hello nicely and quietly.

The hooded warrior looked at Kirito for a slight moment and said hello back nervously. The womanly voice of the hooded warrior left Kirito marginally surprised and dumbfounded.

"I just want to get out of here" the woman said with a depressing tone before Kirito could say anything else.

Kirito felt bad, yet he realized who she was because of the sound of her voice during the glitch fiasco.

"You were one of those people who yelled at that glitch before everyone went on a rampage. Right?" Kirito asked out of curiosity.

"Yes...I am" the woman said nervously.

Kirito grew even more confused since he figured that the woman was nervous around people and was not very talkative, yet she had a lot of confidence in her tone when she screamed at the glitch like a mother defending a child from a serial killer.

Regardless, Kirito was going to ask her to accompany him in his group, but Reginald snuck up on Kirito and screamed at him with a lot of energy and joy.

"Kirito!" Reginald yelled, happy to see Kirito again. This moment immediately made the woman and Kirito feel uneasy.

"I have heard everything, and I was wondering if you can team up with me?" Reginald asked excitedly.

Kirito looked slightly worried and disappointed because he wanted to ask the woman to team up with him, and he didn't want to say no to the young and confident Reginald.

"Please?" Reginald begged impatiently as he noticed Kirito making up his mind.

Kirito had an epiphany that states the more members of the group, the safer the mission would be for everyone involved, so he took Reginald's offer, leaving him happy, cheering obnoxiously loud and saying thank you many times to Kirito.

Reginald accessed his personal menu and tapped the third choice, which had two simple head logos, representing humans, overlapping each other, and was titled "Friends". After tapping that choice, he then tapped "Parties", then tapped "Add Member". Immediately after that, a pop up menu appears in front of him that required him to type the username of the player he wants to join. He typed in "Kirito", then sent a notification to Kirito, which resulted with a pop up screen appearing in front of Kirito as soon as Reginald's pop up screen transitions away. Kirito's pop up screen had Kirito choose whether or not he would let Reginald team up with him. Kirito tapped the circle on the pop up screen, which allowed Reginald to be a part of his team, and Reginald's username and HP stats shown right below Kirito's username and level stats at the top left corner.

Kirito smiled slightly as phase one of his plan has been complete, and asked the woman politely to join him and Reginald in a group.

Though Reginald didn't know who the woman was either, he still gave her the puppy eyes to her, attempting to lure her to the group. It barely worked.

"Ok, I will join you" the woman hesitantly said to Kirito and Reginald. After the whole process of adding another member, another username and HP bar appeared below Reginald's at the corner of Kirito's eye. The username was read as "Asuna".

Kirito smiled at the fact that Asuna joined him, and had noticed three birds flying from his left traveling to his right. Kirito targeted the birds until he noticed the birds were flying towards the sun. The birds sung beautifully to him, even though each bird performed differently as they travel the same direction.

Kirito then looked at his team, and advised them to prepare for the boss fight. Kirito and Reginald noticed that Asuna had left the scene without them knowing, which gave Reginald an opportunity to ask Kirito something.

"Why are you so interested in her?" Reginald asked Kirito in curiosity.

Kirito looked at him for a little bit, then looked down to his feet.

"I don't know" Kirito responded to Reginald.

"Now come on, we have training to do" Kirito said as soon as he stopped thinking about Asuna and Reginald's question, and when he looked at Reginald with a weak smile.

Reginald knew something was up, yet he didn't care since he had the opportunity with the great Kirito.

"Ok!" Reginald screamed in excitement.

The two warriors go off to the fields around town to defeat monsters to increase level and stat values as well as experience.


End file.
